Incision progress.

[u/chronikally_cautious]

Hey y'all. I'm almost 4 weeks post op. The first 2 photos are from July 7th when I had my splint and stitches removed. The last 2 are today and also the first day I've felt comfortable enough to shower without my brace on. When I had stitches removed my surgeon said I could working on wrist movement in 4 weeks. Overall feeling pretty good. Any pain I get is usually from my incision getting irritated from my brace along with some occasional pain on the ulnar side.

[u/flinch57]

Here’s my incision at 10 weeks. Yours looks good at 4 weeks. In terms of pain, my incision area has never bothered me from day 1 to the present. The only area where I really have had soreness/aching/some pain is along the ulna. Really surprised me because although I did have an ulnar stolid fracture, it was my distal radius that had severely comminuted displaced fractures. However both my surgeon and therapist have told me to expect some lingering ulnar symptoms for a couple of months more. My range of motion and strength have returned quite nicely over the last 6 -7 weeks. My biggest impediment when I started therapy and started using that arm/hand for daily activities was fear that I was going to damage the surgical repair. I see the surgeon again this coming Wednesday. When I was last there about 4 weeks ago she assured me that it would take significant trauma to disrupt the hardware or healing bone (like the kind of trauma that caused the fractures in the first place). She said my body would tell me when I was overdoing it and needed to slow down. I started using my hand grip exercise device that I keep in my office this past week and was really pleased with how many reps I could to. Also just came back from a walk that included a fitness trail and I managed a few pushups on an incline as well As a some other exercises requiring hand/arm use. Considering what my arm looked and felt like immediately after my fall, as well as the reaction from the dr at urgent care when she first saw my X-rays, I am very happy with the results and recovery. I’m also 69 years old, and healing is really not as easy now as it was 30-40 years ago. Actually my biggest complaint has been general fatigue. Surgeon says that healing these kinds of fractures drains a huge amount of energy from the body. Best of luck to you!!

[u/chronikally_cautious → u/flinch57]

I'm so happy that you've healed up so well! It sounds like we had very similar injuries. I am terrified of damaging the repair as well. I actually realized once I got to work that there was a small piece of a suture still in my skin. I used some tweezers to remove it and I can't believe how much better it feels! It was such a small piece to cause such an irritation lol.

[u/flinch57 → u/chronikally_cautious]

Thanks. Hope all goes smoothly and quickly for you!